A conventional coil component will be described in the following with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a conventional coil component. FIG. 10 is a sectional view of the coil component. FIG. 11 is a sectional view of the coil component showing a part of the manufacturing process of the coil component.
In FIGS. 9–11, the conventional coil component comprises a coil 52 having a through-hole 51, packaging 53 made up of magnetic material with the coil 52 disposed therein, and a terminal 54 connected to the coil 52. The packaging 53 is formed by molding magnetic powder 55 under pressure so as to cover the coil 52.
The packaging 53 is formed under a constant molding pressure over the entire part thereof, and also the packaging 53 is nearly uniform in density over the entire part thereof.
In the configuration of such conventional coil component, when intended to lower a height of the coil component, it is necessary to increase the molding pressure applied to the packaging 53 in order to entirely compress the packaging 53.
However, although the height of the packaging 53 can be lowered by compressing the packaging 53, the top and bottom portions of the packaging 53 are also reduced in thickness. Accordingly, there has been a problem that magnetic saturation is liable to occur, worsening the reliability, when the magnetic flux passing in the through-hole of the coil 52 passes through the top and bottom portions of the packaging 53.
In order to address the above problem, the present invention provides a coil component improved in reliability, in which magnetic saturation hardly occurs even when the top and bottom portions of the coil component are reduced in thickness for the purpose of lowering the height of the coil component.